Experience may Tipp the balance

Seamus Hayes and Owen Ryan analyse Clare’s prospects of defending their Munster U-21 hurling final title.

With 19 Munster and eight All-Ireland titles to their credit, it is understandable that Tipperary will go into Wednesday’s Munster U-21 hurling final carrying the favourites’ tag, as Clare have won just one Munster and All-Ireland crown.

That said, Clare are the current champions and with a fair sprinkling of last year’s all conquering panel, they have good reason to be confident about their chances.
Tipperary hopes are buoyed by the fact that they also have a number of senior panellists in their line-up and they won the All-Ireland minor title three years ago.
However, the Premier County came within a whisker of bowing out of the title race last week at Pairc Ui Caoimh before a late goal forced extra time and they managed to win by two points.
Clare also received a scare last week as they had to battle hard for victory over a lively Limerick side. The Banner outfit struggled throughout the opening half and were lucky to go to the break on level terms having scored the last five points of the half.
They improved as the second half wore on and finished out the game strongly to book a place in Wednesday’s final in Semple Stadium.
Padraig Maher is the Tipperary captain and their side will also include Noel McGrath in attack, Michael Cahill, David Young, Brendan Maher and Seamus Hennessy whose goal sent last week’s semi-final with Cork into extra time. All six have been featuring regularly with the Tipperary senior side this season and other members of the senior panel include Patrick Maher, Brian O’Meara and Paddy Stapleton.
Former goalkeeper star, Ken Hogan, is the team manager and his backroom team includes Tommy Dunne, William Maher and TJ Connolly.
Last week, a powerful display from the half-back line was the launch pad for Clare’s victory and all will be looking for a repeat this week. There is some concern about the fitness of Tubber’s Patrick O’Connor whose second half display last week was top drawer. He suffered a leg muscle injury when helping his club in a Clare Champion Cup league fixture on Sunday and was substituted. He would be a major loss if unable to take his place in the starting line-up.
The management team of John Minogue, Cyril Lyons, Alan Dunne and Sean O’Halloran is likely to make some positional changes for this one. Patrick Vaughan could move from midfield to attack, a switch that worked well last week. Should this happen, Nicky O’Connell could be chosen at midfield with Kevin Moynihan from Éire Óg pressing for a starting position in the half-back line.
Another who will be pressing to be in the first 15 is Newmarket’s Eoin Hayes. He came in for the injured Fergus Kennedy after just a few minutes last week. Crusheen man Kennedy remains a major doubt for this week’s game.
Conor McGrath and Darach Honan were outstanding in attack last week and they will need to repeat that performance if Clare are to be in with a shout to retain the title.
Team captain John Conlon and Sean Collins are two very experienced members of the squad who have the ability to cause huge problems for any opposition.
Tipperary look very strong but much may depend on their senior game this weekend against Galway. For a number of the players it will be a fourth major championship tie inside two weeks.
It certainly has the ingredients for a cracking tie and Tipperary, with the aid of home venue, will start as favourites. That said, there is no denying the determination within the Clare squad to win this one. History will be made if the holders can retain the crown as it would mark the first occasion ever that the provincial minor and U-21 titles would be in the county in the same year. They may be the outsiders but the ability is there to make it a night to remember for Clare hurling in Semple Stadium.

 

CLARE KEEPER DUSTS HIMSELF OFF

JULY has already been a turbulent month for Donal Tuohy and there’s still a Munster final to play.
His mistake led to an important Dublin goal in Croke Park but dwelling on it wasn’t an option, as four days later he had to get back on the horse and keep goal for the U-21s in a provincial semi-final.
While selectors and supporters might have harboured concerns about Tuohy’s confidence after his mistake at HQ, he made two great saves in Limerick that helped the Banner scrape home by three points, having trailed by five at one stage.
He admits he was rattled by the soft goal in Dublin but feels learning to deal with lows like that is important for any number one.
“The one thing with being a goalie is that confidence is the most important thing. The last 25 minutes of that Dublin game I lost confidence in a big way. That’s probably due to inexperience too. There’ll come a time when I’ll probably get over situations like that and be more confident after mistakes.”
While Clare didn’t beat Waterford in the first round of the Munster championship, the performance was a lot better than the county expected after a fairly dismal league and he feels the players might have been too happy with it.
“A lot of lads were kind of satisfied after the Waterford match and I’m including myself in that. We probably hadn’t trained as hard as we could coming up to Dublin game. I’d say it all hardened us up mentally for the U-21 though.”
For himself, he feels it’s important to learn from the experience. “The Dublin game was unfortunate, from the team overall the performance was poor. It was one of those things. No goalie goes out to make a mistake, but at the same time when he does, he has to learn from it. The likes of PJ Ryan and Davy Fitz have made mistakes before.”
With several survivors from last year’s All-Ireland U-21 winning side and a number of the 2008 crop that were denied a provincial title, there was a lot of expectation on Clare shoulders before the first round. While they got out of Limerick with a win, it was harder than many expected and Tuohy felt it was a poor performance.
“There was just deadness. The fact that we hadn’t all trained together kinda told too. There was a lack of sharpness and Limerick were very hungry in that first 20 minutes. they got on top but we were lucky enough to overcome that around the last five minutes of the half. We must have got four or five points in a row. The score was level at half-time and we hadn’t hurled at all. It was deflating for Limerick I thought.”
Clare had given Limerick a ferocious trimming in Ennis 12 months earlier and Tuohy felt there was a lot of material for motivation when they faced the Banner again.
“It was always going to be a tough match because Limerick after last year; they had a major incentive to come out and beat us. They hadn’t been up to scratch and having the Munster and All-Ireland champions in their back yard, they were always going to be up for the match. Saying that, in my view only five or six of the starting players performed and that wasn’t enough.”
It’s his third year as Clare’s U-21 goalie and he says there’s a fairly close bond in the squad.
“It’s a very close knit group. You’d know a lot of them from college and things, even if you didn’t hurl with the underage. At senior level there are bigger age gaps. Sometimes lads stick with their own age group. It can be harder to get to know lads and to be as close knit as U-21s.”
He also has praise for the management team, who he feels have been crucial to Clare’s success.
“That U-21 management have brought this team on so much. They don’t seem to be overawed by any occasion and they make the right decisions.”

 

FACING FACTS WITH THE CAPTAIN

Clonlara’s John Conlon will lead Clare into Wednesday’s final and he readily admits that it is a great honour. “Nobody from Clonlara has ever captained Clare,” he told The Clare Champion this week.
He admits it was hard to face back into the U-21 campaign after the disappointment of losing out in the senior championship.
“There is a great set-up there with a great management and after the highs of last year, why not. It’s a third Munster final in-a-row at this level so we must be doing something right.”
The team captain is one of the survivors from the final of 2008 when Clare lost to the Premier County.
“That was one of the worst feelings I have experienced on a hurling field,” he said.
Conlon also admits that the team were poor against Limerick last week and there is a lot to improve on.
“In the second half Eoin Hayes moved outfield and this gave more room to the two boys inside (Darach Honan and Conor McGrath) and they were magnificent,” he said.
He was full of praise for Limerick. “They put it up to us and were well up for it but the experience of last year stood to us. There was no sign of panic and we got our goal very fast after they had scored their goal.
“A team is always vulnerable after scoring a goal and we pounced after Limerick got their goal and they weren’t able to slow the game down”.
He agrees that it will be difficult for Tipperary to prepare for Wednesday evening given that they have a senior championship tie this weekend.
“I would be good friends with one or two of them as we are in college together (NUI Galway). They have about eight of their senior team available and they have to be thinking about Sunday. It’s hard going into a final and that may work to our advantage,” he said.
He believes that the success of the county minor side can inspire the U-21s on Wednesday.
“I was watching the minors in Thurles and they were magnificent. We have nothing to lose and we will take inspiration from the performance and achievement of the minors. We don’t fear anyone.
“It would be great for Clare to add the 21 title to the minor win. It is something that the county has never done.”
In the captain’s view, there are two places that hurlers want to play, Croke Park and Thurles.
“They are big fields, the surface is magnificent and you are generally playing in front of big crowds.
“We will be hoping that everything goes right on Wednesday night,” Conlon concluded.

GOING BACK FOR MORE

WHILE several members
of the Clare U-21 side are on the panel for two years and some for three years, it’s actually Caimin Morey’s fourth.
There’s been no shortage of drama over those campaigns. Although Clare’s 2007 Munster championship consisted of a tame performance against Cork, the following year a pitch invasion followed a provincial final decided in bizarre circumstances, while there was hysteria of a different kind in 2009 as Munster and All-Ireland titles were won.
Many people around the county only know Morey as a forward, so there was some surprise when he lined out at centre-back against Limerick last week.
The decision to move him back proved correct, as he delivered a five-star performance in the three-point victory. While he hadn’t played there for some time, Morey has done a lot of hurling in the half-back line.
“I hadn’t played there recently but with Clare minors and U-16s I was always centre back. I only went up to forwards when they were stuck but I was there since. The first time I went back this year was in a challenge against Galway. There were a few injuries and they were stuck for a centre-back.”
He says he’s enjoying playing at number six. “It’s nice to get a change too. The first game was my first time back there in about three years. I think we had three challenge games after that and games in training so there was plenty of time to get used to playing in backs again.”
While he was one of Clare’s best players in Limerick, he admits he was a bit phased at the outset. “For the first 20 minutes I was a bit edgy, I didn’t really know what to expect, it was my first championship game there for a while. It took a while to settle in.”
A lot of the Clare side already have All-Ireland medals and he felt there was a certain coolness about how they coped with falling behind against Limerick.
“We never really panicked. We always knew that we could come back. We didn’t start well but we knew if we hung in, we’d always have a chance.”
Last year’s All-Ireland win helped allay gloom about the state of the game in the county after a win-less senior campaign and Morey has vivid memories of the final.
“The main highlight was when we first went out to the field in Croke Park and we saw all the Clare support there. That was a great buzz. Afterwards, with all the celebrations on the field it really hit home for me.”
2010 has been another bad year for Clare at senior level but he’s hopeful the U-21s will raise morale again.
“It’s our third Munster final in-a-row. we’re getting used to reaching them and hopefully we can do something against Tipp.”

DEVELOPMENT WORK IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Following Clare’s exciting minor championship success recently, joint managers Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor both suggested the work being done at development squad level had a big part to play in the win.
It’s a view shared by U-21 manager John Minogue. Speaking this week ahead of Clare’s third Munster U-21 final appearance in-a-row, the Scariff native said this “is hopefully a sign of development squads beginning to work as players are exposed to a Clare jersey at an earlier age”.
He also spoke of the role played by the various college competitions in the development of players.
“A lot of players are going on to third level and experiencing Fitzgibbon Cup competition. Fifteen to 20 years ago, involvement in this competition was narrowed down to a few universities in Galway and Cork but there are now a lot more schools involved and the players are getting a lot more exposure”.
The Clare boss has no doubt but that his charges are facing a very stiff test on Wednesday evening.
“We are going into a strong Tipperary team that have seven or more of their current senior side. They are extremely strong,” he said.
The fact however that the Tipperary seniors have an All-Ireland quarter-final tie against Galway this Sunday and last week had a qualifier game with Offaly, won’t help their chances?
“There is no substitute to playing games. Players are exposed to top class hurling and there is nothing better than playing and hurling well. It is how the Tipp lads react to that that will determine what way it will work,” said the St Flannan’s College teacher.
“It was always going to be difficult to get a performance from everyone when we played Limerick. It was our first outing of the campaign and we only had all the lads together on one previous occasion. That was obvious in the first 20 minutes in particular last week,” according to Minogue.
Given the controversy that surrounded their final meeting two years ago in Cusack Park, will what happened on that occasion have a bearing on next week’s final.
“That was two years ago and while there are four or five players still there, there are a lot of changes. Harping back to what happened then won’t be any advantage. We have to look forward and hopefully we are good enough to go to Thurles and win,” he said.
“Clare are always going to go in and compete. We hope that our guys perform to the utmost of their capabilities, make it into a dog fight and come out on top at the end.”
The team to start on Wednesday won’t be named until after the weekend but Minogue admitted that the management team had to look at a few positions.
“We got no score from play from our half-forwards last week and we have to look at that. We must get scores from this sector,” he said.
He acknowledged that “it is going to be a tough test. “We are hoping that whoever is playing against Tipperary will make if difficult for them.”